The Children's Blizzard by Melanie Benjamin

 

The blizzard is still talked about.  It occurred January 12, 1888, and by the next morning, over 400 people had died.  It came out of nowhere; the morning had been warm with settlers opening windows and hanging laundry outside.  But by noon, a blizzard of unheard of proportions moved in.  Within minutes, you could not see three feet in front of you nor find a path that had been plain to see minutes before.  Farmers died on the trip from the barn to the house and cattle and horses froze where they stood in the fields.

We see the effects of the blizzard through the lives of three girls, Raina and Gerda Olsen and Anette, a young servant girl.  Raina and Gerda were both teachers, fifty miles apart and their decisions set them apart.  Raina released her pupils to go home but kept them together and shepherded them to safety, with the exception of the boy who ran off with Anette early and one little girl too fragile to survive the trip.  Gerda, who had planned an illict afternoon with her boyfriend, released her students to make their own way home and they all died on the trip.  Anette had run off early, terrified that her boss would punish her if she wasn't home on time.  Her friend went with her, and while Anette survived, he did not.  Raina was considered a heroine while Gerda was considered a murderer and shunned and scorned.

The book then relates what happened after the storm when the papers related the horrible tragedy.  People sent money and gifts to Anette and Raina, enough to insure that they would be able to attend college and make their way.  Anette had lost a hand to frostbite and was the recipient of many gifts from those touched by her story.  

Melanie Benjamin specializes in historical fiction and often biographies of those who came before us.  Her retelling of the blizzard and the hardships suffered trying to get home is fact based and full of tragedy.  The character of Raina is based on that of Minnie Freeman, who saved her thirteen pupils in the blizzard.   The second half of the book, telling what happened afterwards is less strong but still interesting.  This book is recommended for readers of historical and women's fiction.

Learning To Talk by Hilary Mantel

 

This is an anthology of Hilary Mantel stories.  Like everything she writes, each story is a gem, a pearl of great value.  In the title story, a girl relates her childhood through the lessons she took to lose her accent so that she could rise in society as an adult.  Another story tells of a girl's last summer at home and her work in a department store where her mother also works; a mother who had been frumpy and at home and who reinvented herself as a gorgeous fashion plate who rises in management.

The first story tells of a father who disappears and the man who moves in and takes over, terrorizing the family.  Another story tells of a girl's friendship and how it feels to be lost in the days before GPS and when nature was still right there and quite wild.  It also talks about adult friendships.

Hilary Mantel is known as one of England's best authors.  She is best known for her trilogy about Thomas Cromwell, two of which won the Booker Prize.  But her craftmanship and ability to portray human interactions shines in everything she writes.  She is a master of the short story, longer novels and historical fiction.  This book is recommended for readers of literary fiction.

Salt Lane by William Shaw

DS Alexandra Cupidi has moved herself and her teenage daughter from the busy city life of the London Met to a small rural police force in Kent.  Her daughter is going through a teenage rebellion and Alex needs to get away from a disastrous romance.  She is assigned to mentor a newer detective, Jill Ferriter, and isn't sure she likes that part of her job.

Then things get busy.  A woman is found murdered in a ditch.  She has no identification so it takes several days to find out who she is and even then it's not a certainty.  She has been living under a name for about five years but there is also a homeless woman who uses the same name.  It's unclear who is the woman born with that name and who is the imposter.  Then another murder is discovered.  This one is a man, probably an illegal immigrant from North Africa.  With two murders to work, Alex is distraught when her daughter starts to roam all hours of the day and night and convinces her own mother to come and stay.  Can she solve the murders?

William Shaw is a mystery author who has written several series.  This is the first one in the Alexandra Cupidi series.  I liked his writing well enough that I immediately went back and bought several of his other books.  Alex is a strong woman who is facing her personal demons while still performing at the height of her skills on her job.  She is troubled but ultimately likeable.  This book is recommended for mystery readers.   

Rust And Stardust by T. Greenwood

 

Sally Horner, eleven, just wants some friends.  When the popular girls clique offers to let her in, she is willing to do about anything.  But the price is to go to Woolworth's and shoplift something.  Sally knows it is wrong but she wants to be one of the group so badly that she picks up a small notebook and hides it in her sweater.  Then it happens.

As she is leaving, a man grabs her arm.  He tells her that she is under arrest and that he is an FBI agent.  He tells her that he can keep her from going to jail but she will have to go with him to Atlantic City to talk to a judge.  Sally doesn't know what to do but agrees to tell her mother that a friend asked her to spend a week there with her family.  The man calls Sally's mother and charms her, telling her to meet him with Sally at the bus station.

But of course, the man isn't an FBI agent and Sally's mother has just handed her daughter over to a pedophile who has kidnapped a girl before.  When the man finds that Sally has managed to send her mother information, he moves with her to Baltimore.  There Sally is locked in an attic room during the long summer days and subjected to heinous attentions at night.  Once Baltimore gets too dangerous, he moves them to Texas then eventually to California.  

Sally never knows who she can trust and he tells her that he will kill her family if she tells anyone.  Along the way, she occasionally tries to find someone who can help, but it never works out.  There is a nun in Baltimore, a circus lady and a neighbor in the Texas trailer park but somehow Frank, her captor, always knows when help is near.  Eventually, after two years, Sally is rescued when she finds the courage to trust someone.

This novel is based on a true case and Sally Horner is a real person as was her victimizer.  The other characters are mostly made up but the fear and longing that Sally experiences is real.  This case is one of the inspirations behind the infamous novel Lolita.  Sally is stripped of her home, her name and her innocence.  This book is recommended for readers of literary fiction.

We Bought A Zoo by Benjamin Mee

 

It was 2006 and Benjamin Mee's family was used to him taking on big projects.  He had been a journalist and tv writer, swimming with dolphins in Florida one day and visiting the Amazon another.  Then he picked up his family from England and moved to France where he went about restoring a farmhouse and barns for their family complex.  But Mee wasn't done yet.  He heard about a zoo for sale in Dartmoor.  It was the perfect time for his family to take on a project like buying and restoring a zoo.  His father had just died and his mother was selling the family home, giving them capital.  Eventually, Mee, his wife and children, his mother and one of his brothers all moved to the zoo.

It was in bad shape.  The former owner had gotten old and stopped renovating.  The exhibits were old and in need of repair and the animals had to be fed daily.  In order to open as a tourist attraction, everything had to be repaired.  The house was barely liveable and the animals were getting older as well.  It was a huge struggle to find the money and over and over banks promised loans and then reneged.  

Benjamin Mee has devoted his life to animals and conservation.  Before he bought the zoo, it was just a tourist attraction.  Mee turned it into a vibrant center where animals had the correct habitat and the focus was on preserving animals and breeding endangered species.  There were lots of problems, family problems, money problems and animal problems.  One was always getting sick, starting to fight with the other inhabitants in its enclosure, or escaping.  Mee did a masterful job, hiring the correct people and putting his whole life into helping these animals.  This book is recommended for memoir readers.

The Door-To-Door Bookstore by Carsten Henn

Carl Kollhoft is a bookseller and he has always lived the life of the book.  He worked for years in his friend's bookstore and developed a routine that distinguished them from all others.  Every day he took a pile of books that had come in for their special customers.  He wrapped each one meticulously and then walked around the city, delivering books.  It was one of his main social outlets.  There was the wealthy man who lived alone and never left his house, a woman he suspected was being abused by her husband, another woman afraid of life, a former wrestler who after retirement is eager to read all the books he missed while performing.  Carl delivers to them all, talking about books and checking on them.

His life is changed as he gets older.  A young girl starts to walk with him on his deliveries.  She is full of life and ideas and Carl is entranced with her.  She doesn't have friends at school but she has Carl and his customers.  She lives with her father who is always working and doesn't have time for her. 

But things change.  The girl's father is incensed that Carl is spending so much time with his daughter and forbids her to go with Carl.  Carl's friend who owns the bookstore dies and his daughter takes over.  She resents Carl and starts easing him out and finally fires him.  What will Carl do with his life now?

Carsten Henn is a German author who has written several novels.  This one explores the relationship between readers and how an interest can change a life and form friendships.  None of the people in the book would have met or formed friendships without their common interest and Carl's desire to do everything the best that he can.  Carl doesn't realize how important he is to all these people until he has a crisis in his own life.  This book is recommended for literary fiction readers.  

In The Shadow Of Lightning by Brian McClellan

 

Demir Grappo should have lived a charmed life.  He was the son of one of the ruling families of his country and he was a Glass Dancer as well.  Glass is the material that fuels the economy and gives its wielders abilities others don't have.  But Demir, as a general who won the most fabled battles, grew sickened of war and his role in them and left his family and its wealth and power.  He became a grifter, moving from town to town as his cons are discovered.

When his mother is assassinated, Demir returns home.  He finds a country on the verge of ruin.  Godglass and all its power is running low.  Sensing that the country is getting weaker, its most feared rival has declared war.  Demir reluctantly agrees to head up the battle for his country.

Tessa is a glass master.  She has the plans to create a new source of godglass, one that works with lightning to give it power.  She is captured and enslaved at a glassworks.  When Demir rescues her for her knowledge, a spark lights between the two.  Can they unite to save their world?

McClellan is known for his work in the epic fantasy genre.  The world building in this novel is well done and the characters are interesting, especially Baby Montego, Demir's best friend and a renowned fighter.  There are rival families trying to gain power and the loyalty of men to Demir and their country as it faces a challenge that could end it.  This book is recommended for fantasy readers.  

Babel by RF Kuang

 

The Babel Institute at Oxford fuels the entire British economy.  It is the place where translators are trained and the most special of these, are trained in the engraving of silver bars that then have magic properties.  Maybe they make a factory's machines run smoother.  Maybe they make a cart horse's load feel lighter.  Regardless, most things have silver installed and only those at Babel can make them.

But not everyone can be a translator.  The best are those who came to England as a child and grew up bilingual.  That is Robin's story.  He was rescued as a child from Canton and brought and raised in England under the guardianship of one of Babel's professors.  Now he is studying at Babel along with Ramy who came from India, Victiore from Jamaica and Letty, who is from a wealthy elite English family.  The four are each other's society and they band together.

At first Robin is excited and feels privileged to be at this place he trained for all his life.  He is wowed by the traditions of Oxford and amazed that he will be one of the elite himself when he finishes his work there.  But he soon hears about a society that doesn't agree with Babel.  It's called Hermes and it's goal is to destroy Babel and the colonization of other countries that it was built to support.  Robin finds he has a half brother named Griffin who attended Babel but now is one of the leaders of Hermes.  He wants Robin to do the same.  Robin becomes more educated about the disparities of British society and he starts to wonder if he is in the right place.  What will he choose?

RF Kuang has been a force in the fantasy world since she burst onto the scene with her Poppy War trilogy, all of which were Hugo nominees.  She attended both Cambridge and Oxford and is currently working on a doctorate in Chinese studies at Yale.  She has worked herself as a translator.  In this novel, she poses the question about whether violence is the only vehicle that can change an entrenched society and whether it is a force for ultimate good.  Readers will follow Robin on his journey from a grateful child to an adult who sees the evil in the world and questions his role in it.  This book is recommended for fantasy readers.  

Booksie's Shelves, January 20, 2025

 

Two-thirds of the way through January and a cold spell has hit the United States.  North Carolina even got some snow and ice last week so that's enough of that, thank you very much.  Football playoffs are in the works and college basketball is in full swing.  Add in all the great books that have hit my shelves or my Kindle and it's a great year start!  Here's what's come through the door:

1. Tall Bones, Anna Bailey, mystery, purchased
2. A Grandmother Begins The Story, Michelle Porter, indigenous lit, purchased
3. In The Distance, Hernan Diaz, literary fiction, purchased
4. Bad Nature, Ariel Courage, literary fiction, sent by publisher
5. We Pretty Pieces Of Flesh, Colwill Brown, literary fiction, sent by publisher
6. Cooking With Fernet Branca, James Hamilton-Paterson, literary fiction, purchased
7. Sixty Lights, Gail Jones, literary fiction, purchased
8. Prayer For The Dead, David Wiltse, mystery, purchased
9. The Edge Of Sleep, David Wiltse, mystery, purchased
10. The Hangman's Knot, David Wiltse, mystery, purchased
11. Cherry, Matt Thorne, literary fiction, purchased
12. Restless Dolly Maunder, Kate Grenville, literary fiction, purchased
13. O Caledonia, Elspeth Barker, literary fiction, purchased
14. All Of Us Are Broken, Fiona Cummins, mystery, purchased
15. The Bog Wife, Kay Chronister, horror, purchased
16. The Vegetarian, Han Kang, literary fiction, purchased
17. The Best American Mystery And Suspense, 2021, Alafair Burke, mystery, sent by publisher
18. The Gardener Of Eden, David Downie, mystery, purchased
19. Perfect Explanation, Eleanor Anstruther, literary fiction, purchased
20. All We Shall Know, Donal Ryan, literary fiction, purchased
21. You Will Be Safe Here, Damian Barr, literary fiction, purchased
22. The Innocent Sleep, Karen Perry, literary fiction, purchased
23. The Art Of Prophecy, Wesley Chu, fantasy, purchased 

Here's what I'm reading:

1. Babel, RF Kuang, Kindle
2. The Book Of Form And Emptiness, Ruth Ozeki, hardcover
3. Rust And Stardust, T. Greenwood, paperback
4. We Bought A Zoo, Benjamin Mee, hardback
5. In The Shadow Of Lightning, Brian McCleelan, audio
6. The Children's Blizzard, Melanie Benjamin, Kindle
7. The Door To Door Bookshop, Carsten Hann, Kindle

Happy Reading!

The Good Lord Bird by James McBride

 

Most people have heard of Harper's Ferry and the man, John Brown, who captured it believing that it would force the hand of the government to free the slaves.  Many regard it as the opening salvo of the Civil War although formal declarations didn't happen.  But few know John Brown, an evangelist with twenty-two children, as Henry Shackleford does.

Henry is a young African American boy.  He is raised in a saloon by his father, a drunkard who clears the tables.  Henry does the same, plus cutting hair and singing.  The two eke out a living but his father knows hard times are coming.  He convinces Henry to dress as a girl thinking he would be safer and after his father is killed, Henry leaves, seeking his way in life.

He ends up with John Brown's ragtag army out in Kansas.  John Brown is determined to free the slaves and improve the lot of the Indians he feels kinship with.  Brown is a master strategist and can inspire men, but he never had more than a handful of soldiers, many his own sons.  He renames Henry Onion and Onion he is.  This is the story of the four years leading up to Harper's Ferry.  Onion is sometimes with Brown and sometimes on his own but his path always leads back to Brown.  With him he meets famous African Americans such as Harriet Tubman and Fredrick Douglas.  The Northern abolitionists promise Brown supplies and men but their words are not good.  Brown wants to take Harper's Ferry, believing a vast army of slaves will join him there and that they can retreat to the mountains for a sustained battle.  

James McBride is a former journalist for such publications as the Washington Post and People Magazine.  He moved into full time writing and his books have been best sellers.  This novel won the National Book Award in 2013.  I've heard about it for years and finally found time to read it and found it amazing.  Onion is the narrator and his life in disguise as a girl exemplifies the disguises that those in slavery had to live under to survive.  I always thought The Good Lord Bird was a person but it is indeed a bird with distinctive feathers that was considered lucky.  Both Brown and Onion had a feather from a good lord bird and when Onion gives Brown his feather as he is leaving Harper's Ferry, it symbolizes that Brown's good luck has left and he will not survive his dream.  This book is recommended for readers of literary fiction. 

Black Heels And Tractor Wheels by Ree Drummond

 

When Ree Drummond broke up with her college boyfriend after four years, she moved back to her childhood home in Oklahoma to figure out what she would do with the rest of her life.  She decided to relocate to Chicago where her brother lived, but before she could move, she met the man she called Marlboro Man, Ladd Drummond.

A more unlikely pair would be hard to imagine.  Ree was a country club girl, daughter of a doctor and a socialite mother.  She knew all about manners and clothes and living a wealthy lifestyle.  Ladd was a rancher.  His days started before dawn and he worked cattle and horses all day.  But the two sparked an immediate interest and several months later, started dating.

The connection was real and sustained, with the couple getting serious very fast, exchanging vows of love and getting married within a year.  Instead of clubbing all night, Ree was now watching old cowboy movies after dinner (usually steak for this former vegetarian) and sitting on the front porch listening to the night around her.  

Most readers know Ree Drummond as The Pioneer Woman.  She is known for her blog about life in rural Oklahoma and for her cooking, having a television show and numerous bestselling cookbooks.  But this is life before all that fame.  She tells the sad along with the happiness; her parents' marriage breaks up as she is starting hers, her grown brother on the spectrum, sadness as various elderly relatives pass away.  But mostly she talks about the love between Ladd and she.

I have a few quibbles with the book.  Ree is now in her fifties and while those of us similar in age know what she means when she calls Ladd her Marlboro Man, younger readers probably do not as we no longer idealize smoking.  The other is that she glosses over the fact that as rich as she has become with her writing and television show, Ladd is far richer with she.  He is one of the top one hundred landowners in the United States and owns land in association with his family as large as half of Rhode Island.  Of course, this book tells of their early years, but I think it gives a false impression to portray him as a rustic cowboy when he is now worth over two hundred million dollars.  Outside of that, this is a delightful book that will lighten the heart and is recommended for readers of momoirs.

The Witness For The Dead by Katherine Addison

 

Thara Celehar is a witness for the dead.  He can touch a recently dead person and know their last thoughts.  After losing favor at court, he now lives in a small town and works for the common people.  His newest case is that of the murder of an opera singer.  Thara learns that she was not a woman that people liked; she was vindictive, a thief and a bully.  But he doesn't judge the dead; he just serves them.  

Along the way to the solution to the singer's case, Thara has other cases.  He discerns the last wishes of a man whose family found two wills with differing inheritances.  He discovers a man who is marrying and killing women who are plain but who have money.  He quiets a ghoul, one of the more dangerous duties of his office.  Ghouls start by feeding on the dead but always eventually move on to live victims.  Each case gets Thara's best efforts as he serves his calling.

Katherine Addison is a best selling fantasy author.  This book is the first in the Cemeteries Of Amalo series.  Readers will enjoy Thara's quiet manner, his determination to do the best with his talents that he can and the variety of cases he encounters.  This book is recommended for fantasy readers.  

Devils Kill Devils by Johnny Compton

 

Sarita has a guardian angel.  She first realized this as a small child when she almost drowned at the beach and he appeared out of nowhere to save her, leaving when she was safe without a word.  He appeared again when she was older saving her once more, then again when she was in college, saving her from a wreck that killed her friends.  She has no idea why she has the man she calls Angelo but it makes her feel safe.

Then she meets Frank and marries him.  When a tragedy occurs, Sarita starts to find out who Angelo is and why he has been by her side.  A cult believes that she is the person they have worshipped for centuries, come to fulfill prophecy.  As they attempt to take her and as they take others around her, Sarita learns that she must save herself rather than waiting on Angelo to do everything.

Johnny Compton specializes in the horror genre, writing short stories and hosting a horror podcast.  This is his second novel with his first, Spite House, being nominated for the Bram Stoker Award.  While this book started out strong, it seemed to spin away from him about halfway through, getting more and more frantic.  Horror that creeps up on one is often most effective; this is 'in your face' terror.  Sarita changes from a scared child to someone who, by the end, realizes that only she can save herself and that family is more important than anything else.  She was the strongest character and readers will emphasize with her.  This book is recommended for horror readers.  

Mudwoman by Joyce Carol Oates

 

M.R. Neukirchen is a trailblazer, a woman philosopher who is now the first female president of a New England Ivy League university.  Although she is feted for this accomplishment, no one knows the true story of what she has overcome.

She was born into poverty where food wasn't certain on any day.  She lived with a psychotic mother, a sister and various boyfriends of the mother.  One day the mother decides she doesn't want the children anymore.  M.R. is thrown out onto a mudflat, starving, too feeble to climb out.  She is rescued by a fisherman and enters the social service system.  

She is adopted by a Quaker couple and given every material advantage from that point on.  But they change her original name to Meredith Ruth and she comes to realize that to them, she is only a replacement for their daughter who died, also Meredith Ruth.  They pressure her to become a teacher and live in their town forever, but M.R. applies to an Ivy League university and is accepted, and moves on to become an accomplished woman.

But a woman who doesn't believe anyone could every love her.  She has a lover of many years, but he is married and unavailable to her.  The new job is taxing and overwhelming but M.R. refuses to delegate or ask for any help.  As the weeks go by, she moves closer and closer to a nervous breakdown.

Joyce Carol Oates is one of the most prolific American authors.  Her work often has a tinge of the Gothic and this one is in that genre.  There is a relationship with a crow and various supernatural things start to happen.  But it can also be seen as a feminist work, outlining the difficulty of breaking the glass ceiling and the need to overcompensate.  This book is recommended for literary fiction readers.  

Afternoon Of A Faun by James Lasdun

 

Two English writers, friends, are now both living in the United States.  One is Marco Rosedale, son of a prominent English barrister and famous in his own right as a journalist and television presenter.  He comes to his friend with a problem.  Marco received a call from an English newspaper telling him that he is featured in the recollections of a woman, Julia, from forty years ago.  She says that Marco forced her to have sex one afternoon.  

Marco remembers the affair but has a very different perspective.  He remembers it as totally consensual and that it lasted for several more encounters.  He knows that in the era of the 'me-too' scandals, if this memoir is printed it will ruin his life.  A quote from the book says it all: "The truth might be hard to bring to light, but that didn't mean it didn't exist, because it did exist: fixed in its moment, unalterable, and certainly not a matter of 'belief'"

Marco manages to quash the newspaper but then Julia finds a publisher.  Marco becomes obsessed with preventing this book from being published and his friend is drawn further and further into the event, both as a listener and then when he visits England, as a participant.  What is the truth?  Marco readily admits that in another generation he treated women horribly but he insists that it was nothing more than the attitude of many men and that he would never be coercive.  Can reality be unearthed after all this time?

James Lasdun is an English poet and author although he now lives and teaches in the United States.  He has written a memoir of being cyberstalked by one of his own students for years and has insight into fighting perceptions versus truth from that experience.  This novel was written as the 'me-too' movement became prominent and men from all walks of life were called to account for their behavior, often from years before.  The reader will get the slow reveal of this scandal and their sympathies may move from one character to another as they read.  This book is recommended for literary fiction readers.  

The Home Child by Liz Berry

 

In 1889, a law was passed in England that allowed the transfer of orphaned children to Canada as indentured servants.   Most were between the ages of seven and fourteen but some were as young as toddlers.  They were called home children.  In this beautiful book, Liz Berry tells the story of one such child, Eliza Stowell.  

Eliza is sent to a farmer's house whose wife is bed bound with illness.  She does all the cleaning and cooking, laundry, feeding of livestock and tends to the lady of the house.  She works from before dawn until there is no more light, only to fall into her bed and sleep, exhausted, until the next day.  It is a hard life where Eliza has nothing to call her own.  The family even changes her name to Lizzie.

Then a boy arrives, another indentured servant, another home child.  He is a few years older than Eliza and they form at first a friendship, then a love.  His are the only tender looks and touches Eliza ever gets but they are discovered and her love is sent away.

Liz Berry is a prize-winning poet and she has told this story in verse.  The poems tell of the voyage over, the longing for Eliza's mother and brothers, her loneliness and her joy in finding a love.  It tells the story of the home children, a program that sent over one hundred thousand children to another country.  It is estimated that ten percent of Canada's population are descendants of those who were forcibly emigrated.  The poems are written with use of dialect and they bring Eliza to life in a way that few characters are drawn.  Eliza is based on Liz Berry's great aunt, Eliza, who was a participant in the story and lost to the family that remained behind.  This gorgeous book is recommended for literary fiction readers.  

First Lie Wins by Ashley Elston

 

Ryan Summers and Evie Porter are a typical couple.  They are young, professional and living in Ryan's hometown, in fact in his family home.  The relationship isn't long, in fact only a few months long, but it looks like it's headed for marriage.

There's just one problem.  Evie Porter isn't Evie Porter.  She's a con artist, working for a shadowy figure, taking whatever assignment he gives her.  Sometimes it's stealing something priceless, sometimes getting information and sometimes setting someone up for blackmail.  She has come to the town to get information and her mark is Ryan himself.  Ryan has a legitimate business that takes most of his time but his family business is also one of the biggest middlemen in stolen goods in the South.  

As Evie attempts to finish her assignment, troubles start to crop up.  Mr. Smith, her boss, has sent another operative to town to let her know that she isn't producing as fast as he wants and the other operative is going by Evie's real name.  As tensions mount and bodies start to accumulate, it's unclear if Evie will be able to finish this assignment or if it will be the end of her.

This is my first book by Ashley Elston.  She has been writing in the young adult genre and this is her first adult book.  The plot is intricately woven and the pacing is fast.  The book alternates between this assignment and past assignments of Evie's that fill in her backstory.  The ending is exceptionally well done and Elston has created a book that hopefully will keep her in the mystery genre.  This book is recommended for mystery readers.  

Standing In The Shadows by Peter Robinson

 

Inspector Alan Banks and his team are working two cases.  The first is a skeleton that was found by an archeologist who was digging for Roman ruins but found something much more recent.  The body is that of a man in his late fifties to mid sixties with no identification but evidence of expensive clothes, buried probably five to ten years.  The other case is a college woman who died forty years before back in the time and location of the Yorkshire Ripper.  Due to all the activity of that case, the death of Alice went unsolved and listening to her friends, barely investigated.

The team is the same characters but a new detective has been assigned.  He is a young man, eager to learn and probably to be fast tracked for promotion.  Winsome has just returned after having a baby and Gerry is rapidly becoming one of the main individuals that Banks looks to.  DCI Annie Cabbot is on leave after the death of her father so she can close out his estate.  When it starts to look like the cases may be related, it throws everyone for a loop.  Can they solve both cases?

This is the last DCI Alan Banks' book in the series, number twenty-eight.  What a wonderful 2024 I had, going back and reading all the books in this series.  The reader gets an inside look into Banks's life throughout the years as he just comes to Eastdale, through the years of his marriage and children at home, to his aging but refusal to retire.  I'm not sure if there would have been more, as Robinson has introduced a new character in the young detective and the other characters's stories are ongoing.  This is a marvelous series and the reader couldn't do much better in police procedural mysteries than this work.  This book is recommended for mystery readers.  

The Silver Star by Jeannette Walls

 

Charlotte Holladay comes from an old respected Virginia family and a milltown where the mill was owned by Holladays and the main street was Holladay Avenue.  But Charlotte never fit that mold.  After her husband deserted her and her daughter, she went through a wild spell and gained another daughter.  But the gossip and narrow mindedness of the townspeople was crushing her spirit so she took her girls and left.  

Unfortunately, she wasn't exactly mother material.  When she disappeared for more than three weeks with no word, her girls, Liz and Bean, decided something had to be done and climbed on the Greyhound bus to visit their uncle Tinsley.  Tinsley wasn't doing that well himself.  He had been forced out of his mill by new owners and a bully they brought in named Maddox.  Maddox cut salaries, cut out longstanding benefits like the Christmas ham and baseball team and made everyone's life miserable.  Tinsley was left with a huge mansion and no money coming in.  When the girls arrived he was living off eggs and venison stew but he welcomed the girls in regardless.

The girls liked the town their mother despised.  Bean found new family with her father's relatives and learned about the man her mother refused to tell her about.  They did well at school and learned to love Uncle Tinsley.  But Maddox wasn't through with the Holladay family and he committed a crime against the girls that could not be ignored although it would divide the town.

Jeannette Wells is known best for her memoir, The Glass Castle, which outlined the story of her own unusual family and which was made into a movie.  This novel shares elements of that memoir with adults who are unwilling to live up to their responsibilities as parents and children who are forced to grow up well before their time.  Readers will fall in love with Bean's spirit and empathize with Liz and her troubles.  This book is recommended for literary and women's fiction.    

The Grief Of Stones by Katherine Addison

 

Katherine Addison takes her readers back into the world that was introduced in The Goblin Emperor.  It is part of the four part series called The Chronicles Of Osreth and focuses on the character of Thara Celehar.  Readers first met Celehar when he uncovered the truth about the bombs that killed the goblin emperor's father and brothers.  He is a provost and a witness for the dead.

Thara has been moved to a small town called Amalo where he would work with the commoners of the kingdom, which is his preference.  A witness for the dead can speak with the dead by laying hands on their bodies.  He or she can solve murders this way, determine how someone wanted their property left in the case of no wills and other things.  He has also been charged with training a woman who has uncovered her talent for death talking as well.

Thara has several cases in this novel.  He solves several murders, uncovers a child abuse ring and helps discover an ancient tomb with treasure that belongs to the kingdom.  He also fights a being guarding the treasure and is the victor but at the loss of his powers.  What comes next?

Katherine Addison is the pen name of Sarah Monette.  She writes mostly in the genre of fantasy and sometimes co-authors with other fantasy writers.  In this series, she has created a fascinating character in Thara who is gentle and honest and who only wants to help others.  I listened to this novel and the narrator did an excellent job of bringing the character to life as he solved the big and little mysteries that make up his daily work.  This was the second book in the trilogy and the next will be published in March of 2025.  I know I'll be ready to revisit Thara and his world then.  This book is recommended for fantasy readers.  

Booksie's 2024 Wrapup, January 1, 2025

It's hard to believe but it's now 2025!  I was on Bluesky last night and there were lots of posts about the Y2K event.  As an IT person, I was very involved in that and remember it vividly.  It all turned out fine and I'm expecting a great 2025 as well.  It's a time of checking goals and setting new ones.  Here's how I did on last year's goals:

1.  Read 300 books.  I didn't make it but I got close.  I read 273 books.

2.  Read a classic.  I read Middlemarch so this one was done.

3.  Read the Peter Robinson Inspector Alan Banks series.  I'm on #28, the last one.

4.  Read from my shelves and give away what I've read.  This one is a big yes.

5.  Finish four challenges.  Done.

Here are my favorites for 2024 in no particular order:

1. The Five by Hallie Ruebenhold
2. Beartown by Fredrick Backman
3. Exordia by Seth Dickinson
4. Gould's Book Of Fish by Richard Flanagan
5. All The Light We Couldn't See by Anthony Doerr
6. The Hunter by Tana French
7. The Gameshouse by Clair North
8. The Safekeep by Yael Van Der Wouden
9. The Seven Moons Of Maali Almeida by Shehan Karunatilaka
10. Prophet Song by Paul Lynch
11. The Familiar by Leigh Bardugo
12. The Garden Of Evening Mists by Tan Twan Eng
13. Mothers Of Sparta by Dawn Davies
14. American Dirt by Jeannine Cummins
15. Fourth Wing by Rebecca Yarros

Finally, here are my goals for 2025:

1. Read 300 books.  I'm going to make this one sometime!
2. Read from my own shelves and give away what I read.
3. Read all books from my four book clubs.
4. Finish the 52 Book Challenge for 2025 and four challenges with the Book Girls.
5. Read two classics.
6. Read the nineteen books in the Mark Billingham Tom Thorne series.
7. Read the three books in the Tamsyn Muir Gideon The Ninth series.
8. Read the three books in the Anthony Ryan The Covenant Of Steel series.
9. Read the seven books in the Dark Tower series by Stephen King
10. Read a series by Adrian Tchaikovsky.

As always, Happy Reading!